HOUSTON, Texas -- The Houston Dynamo officially announced the acquisition of their newest player Thursday, 18-year-old U.S. youth international forward Felix Garcia.
Garcia was acquired through the MLS allocation process and signed to a Generation adidas contract. The Dynamo traded spots in the MLS allocation order with Toronto FC, who held the third spot. Houston sent an international roster spot to Toronto for two years in exchange for moving up in the allocation draft order.
The Laredo native comes with an impressive resume for an 18-year-old. During his two years with the Laredo Heat of the PDL, the team played in two championship games. During the first year, Garcia scored the only goal in the semifinals as his team advanced to the title game. The championship was decided on penalty kicks, where it was Garcia who converted the game winning penalty.
Last year, Laredo advanced again to the PDL championship game, but lost in the final. However, Garcia was named the PDL Under-19 Player of the year and led his team with an impressive 11 goals.
While admitting he has never seen Garcia play, Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear noted he came highly recommended.
"I put a lot of faith in (U.S. under-20 national team coach) Thomas Rongen's assessment of Felix. About all the players that were in his camp, the person he thought has the best potential to be a very good professional, the name was Felix Garcia," Kinnear said.
While Garcia nervously said that he hopes to make the starting 11, Kinnear noted that there is no pressure on him to play.
"We want him to play, but the pressure is to grow as a soccer player and be a good productive player on and off the field." Kinnear said. "If I feel that Felix is good enough to play for us and help us win games, he is going to play. There is no pressure."
Kinnear was pleased that another young player elected to come into Major League Soccer, and for their part, Dynamo executives also counseled patience.
"It is unrealistic to expect any player, no matter how talented, to come right in an make an enormous difference," said Dynamo president Oliver Luck. "But we see a lot of potential in Felix and he has a chance at a great age to learn from our players and from what we think is the best coaching staff in the league."
Regardless of how quickly he makes his professional debut, Garcia's enthusiasm of realizing his dream of becoming a professional athlete at age 18 was infectious.
"I feel very happy to be here. I came here to play soccer and enjoy my life with my girlfriend. I want to take the opportunity to thank those that had something to do with this. It's a dream come true, and I can't wait to get on the pitch," he said.
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